


Ashes to Grow From

by Aaronna



Series: Airbender Yes, Avatar No [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang (Avatar) Is Not The Avatar, Assumed Disabilities, Avatar!Zuko, Azulon (Avatar) is a horrible granfather, Child Abuse, Gen, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ursa (Avatar) is a Good Parent, ableist attitudes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29297370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronna/pseuds/Aaronna
Summary: The Monks had thought Aang was the Avatar, but Toys were not the best test. Shino was proof of that. Yana was just as unlucky as her predecessor and Minsu never realized what he was. Now, the cycle had come full circle. Now, there was once again a Fire Nation Avatar.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character, Ozai/Ursa (Avatar), Ursa & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Airbender Yes, Avatar No [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151714
Comments: 2
Kudos: 67





	Ashes to Grow From

The monks were so sure that Aang was the Avatar from the age of 2 that they ignored the other boys who were born around the same time. Since Aang was a prodigy, they assumed they were correct and never even thought there was a chance anyone else could possibly be the Avatar, so Shino was never an outcast among the other children like Aang and was never threatened to be taken from his mentor. That was why he died during the Comet.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

  
  
Yana had always wanted to fight, but that wasn’t the way of the North and try as she might, she could never get her water to heal. She had dreams of a bald boy with blue arrow tattoos who told her he was her in a past life. He said they let their woman fight with their bending in the South, but when she woke up, no one believed her and couldn’t leave the North. 

When her father chose a husband for her, she tried to run away, to escape South, but they stopped her. She hated the father of her two sons with all her being and wished for nothing more than to send him to La’s depths, but everyone knew that, which was why she had been locked away for the last 3 years. One night she managed to overpower the bending of her guards and used water and air as she tried to escape with the traders that were visiting the Pole. 

They took one look at her crazed eyes and defended themselves. Her anger and will to fight were strong, but she was untrained and these men were firenation benders. Her death led to the complete isolation of the North from the rest of the world. 

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Minsu had been born in the Colonies. His mother was Earth, his father was Fire. Being able to bend both elements was unusual, but given both his parents were strong benders, not one really questioned it. Dreams of a madwoman used to terrify him as a child, but she taught him how to feel Agni’s rays in Tui’s light and how to feel the water around him. He never thought to try bending the water.

He lived a good life as a city guard and married a beautiful woman from the home islands. In the summer, his fellow guards always shook their heads at how lucky he was to always have a breeze to keep cool and in the cold winter, they wondered about how the winds never seemed to bother him. He enjoyed his job and retired in his late 50s after his girls were all married. 

He spent 30 years helping raise his grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. All his girls had been nonbenders, but most his grandchildren were fire benders, but a few were earth. He trained them all and tried to see if there were any duel benders, but out of his 11 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren, none of them ever were.

He was 80 years old when the Earth Army attacked the Fire Nation colony. His age didn’t stop him from joining the forces defending his city. He used Fire and Earth to protect his home and family and died in the act of saving his youngest grandson from an attack.   
  
At the funeral, the young man swore his grandfather’s eyes had burned like twin suns as he took out more fighters than the rest of the defense force combined. His body was burned as Agni’s light faded and his ashes buried near the family's fountain where the wind always blew. Moved by the story, Prince Iroh meditated on the idea of expanding the colonies and had a vision of conquering Ba Sing Se.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

It was the winter solstice and a new moon the night Prince Zuko was born. He had not been expected for nearly two more months. The healers said he wouldn’t live to see Agni’s light and Sages said he would not have been a bender even if he survived since both the sibling spirits had turned their backs on the child. The babe’s father and grandfather refused to visit a child that wouldn’t live a full day.

When dawn came, the prince's screams echoed through the palace halls and the healers finally looked the boy over. His eyes weren't dark like most babies, they were light gold, so he was written off as blind. The poor thing was so tiny his mother was scared to break him and no one else dared touch him for fear of the babe dying under their care.

That was how it went until it was clear the child had some sight, but the idea of another child in the royal family being a non-bender alienated the boy from his father and grandfather. On the other hand, Crown Prince Iroh and Prince Lu Ten finally met the toddler, who they seemed to love at first sight. Of course, that was when Princess Ursa realized she was pregnant again, causing whispers about the fate of her son if the baby was full term, healthy, and a bender.

Of course, Azula was born at midday in the middle of the summer a few days after she was expected and was throwing sparks before she could walk. When Zuko made his first flame at 6, his sister had already been bending for 2 years. Ozai didn't care that the boy had started at the usual age for children, he was always held in comparison to his baby sister who had taken to firebending like a fish to water. It didn't matter that the boy was good at bending under his Uncle's tutelage, he failed under the harsh teaching of his sister's teachers.

Nothing improved or even changed until the failure of the Siege of Ba Sing Se and death of Prince Lu Ten. Then everything changed all at once. Azulon died, Princess Ursa was gone, Ozai was Fire Lord, and the child no one had thought would see a single dawn was now the Crown Prince.

That was when it started. The many near assassinations, Azula's open attempts at murder, the accidents that he barely dodged. It should have been clear what was going to happen when the Prince was forced to fight an Agni Kai.

It was surprising that Ozai didn't end the child right then and there, especially since everyone there knew the Fire Lord had always wished the boy had died that first night, but the flames went out and the prince collapsed. The news of banishment made sense, but the terms of completion didn't. Find the Avatar, a figure not seen in a century. It would have been kinder to have made it a lifetime banishment, but Fire Lord Ozai was not what anyone would mistake for loving or kind, so he gave Zuko false hope to hurt the boy even further.

No knew the irony of those terms until the unconscious boy was loaded on an antique ship and they were out of Fire Nation waters. It started with a fever and then the secret was clear to everyone on the price of scrap that was generously called a ship. The child they were now in charge of was bending the sea around them, the wind at their backs, the very coal in the holds. 

Prince Zuko was the Avatar.


End file.
